You can get Mike's Lab Race boards made in Thailand by Cobra- as it is a molded board and an exact copy of the Mike's Lab "Production" Mike Zajicek makes by hand.

Weight is very close as well. Hieneken raced a board off the rack built by Zajicek and the production boards are very close in weight and feel very stiff and strong when you sail them.

By the way the Mike's Lab 70 cm wide shape- has not changed in over 2.5 years as it is a registered production board. The board build at the cobra factory is from a Mike's Lab board, so its the same board in shape.

Contact Chip Wasson as he is distributing the ML's along with Johnny Hieneken athe the three of them started the mass production company to produce the 70cm wide Mike's Lab Production board

You can get Mike's Lab Race boards made in Thailand by Cobra- as it is a molded board and an exact copy of the Mike's Lab "Production" Mike Zajicek makes by hand.

Weight is very close as well. Hieneken raced a board off the rack built by Zajicek and the production boards are very close in weight and feel very stiff and strong when you sail them.

By the way the Mike's Lab 70 cm wide shape- has not changed in over 2.5 years as it is a registered production board. The board build at the cobra factory is from a Mike's Lab board, so its the same board in shape.

Contact Chip Wasson as he is distributing the ML's along with Johnny Hieneken athe the three of them started the mass production company to produce the 70cm wide Mike's Lab Production board

I own a Lab70 (not a custom one, but I believe they are very similar) and have also tried the TMV RC70 and my comparison is as follows:

- In light winds performance are very similar. A guy with a TMV RC70 could bit a Lab70 depending on the rest of conditions (riders ability, rest of the gear, tactics, etc). TMV has a very good upwind angle.

- the stronger the winds the better the Lab 70 is against the TMV RC70.

Why is this so? I believe the Lab70 is designed for balance, confort, racebility. Everything gets easier on a Mike's Lab. On the other hand the TMV RC70 is an extrem design. Less 'raceble' (I do not know how to spell this word, I heard it from one of the top guys) only performance, you 've got to be carefull all the time. A mistake of yours (specially downwind) and you are history. With Mike's Lab you just concentrate on the race course, etc. You do not need to worry about the board. You know she will behave the best way possible, all the time, even in the craziest downwind leg with waves and strong & gusty winds.

Another difference is the balance against the fins. The feeling is different. May be due to the tail design differences. I like the feeling of riding the fins better in the Lab 70. It gets a little tricky with the TMV. I personally do not enjoy that much riding boards that no not allow big canting angles (3-4degrees) and work better with little canting (0-1 degrees).

The last thought about TMV is that I would move the widest point of the board a little bit forward (just a little ahead of the front footstrap insert). The TMV design reminds me of a windsurfing extrem designing trend, the time where all volume and width came all the way back. I don't know how you guys would call it in english. It was not bad, but at the end the width and volume distribution came back to a more normal position. That's what I would do with the TMV since I believe kiteboards and more sensitive to outline designs than windsurfing boards.

Any way, the TMV is a good and enjoyable board.

Best regards,

David

Thank you so much for your review

You are right.I think the TMV RC 70 2012 is a real weapon for light to medium wind in flat to light choppy water, upwind, downwind no matter. It simply blast in these conditions.

The fact is that we developed the board with this conditions in mind.You can always ride this board in difficult (wave and strong wind) conditions with very good results but you are right it becomes more technical to ride.

See for example the result in the Worlds of Elena Kalinina (15 years old) She finished in 6th place the women fleet among 42 women with even a second place the worst day for the characteristics of the RC 70 ( very confused wave and 18 to 22 kts) This only to point that is very often a question of rider

I believe the RC 70 2012 is one of the best choice you can do in the 2012 race board Market.

The good thing about the ML 70 is that this board remains easy to ride in a wide range of conditions. Not only. It is hell fast and has a good upwind ability, at the same time it goes deep downwind with a medium energy effort. (body and mental)

Anyway the reason the ML 70 won everything in 2012 is the same reason it is such a good board:1 Johnny heineken2 Adam Koch3 Riccardo Leccese4 Bryan LakeThe best riders ride it and helped mr. Mikelab to develop it plus, naturally the extremely good handcrafts ability and talent of mr. Zajicek.

I do believe mr. Casciani, the Temavento shaper has the same experience, he has been shaping since the early 80's and during these years he has been shaping some of the best and fastest windsurf slalom board in the World.

A kite board is not a windsurf and here's comes Mr. Mazzanti.

I can assure you , the Temavento 2013 will have all the characteristics you mentioned,PLUS some others.

we learnt a lot from the Worlds in Cagliari.

all you need is a bit of humility, knowing how to listen to the needs of your athletes, good eyes to look at what to work and the ability to put it into practice ...add the best manufacturing technology in the world and you will have aRC 70 2013

i am waiting a few weeks because the final choice of box rule vs one design still has not been made, i though it would for sure be box rule but it seems not so sure right now.

Thats the reason i havent bought a ML boad im afrad of paying the money and after the box rule will constantly be changing, i think they should do a one design class soob so each rider shows more the skills not the gear, do you think they would make it a one design class? when do they make the desision?

Can't really see that what they decide make much difference. If they decide one design then the Olympic class pretty much dies before it even starts and everyone, except the one or two Olympic hopefuls from each country, will ride the way more fun and competitive open class.

Can't really see that what they decide make much difference. If they decide one design then the Olympic class pretty much dies before it even starts and everyone, except the one or two Olympic hopefuls from each country, will ride the way more fun and competitive open class.

A new "one design" would still be very expencive to buy, so only more affordable when buying 4 years old equipment. And look how much eg a raceboard have developed The last Four years. So you would stop evolution with a one design. And who would like to compete with outdated equipment on top level ? Not even windsurfers

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